GERMANY. 



441 



11, 1878, by Prince Reuss, the German Ambas- 

 sador in Vienna, and Count Andrassy, and it 

 ratified on January 11, 1879. In conse- 

 quence of this convention, Article V. of the 

 Treaty of Prague reads now : " Ilia Majesty 

 tin- Kmperor of Austria transfers to his Majesty 

 i lie King of Prussia all his rights to the duchies 

 Holsteiu and Schleswig acquired by the Peace 

 of Vienna of October 80, 1864." The provi- 

 sion which was formerly added to this article, 

 that the northern districts of Schleswig, in 

 case the people thereof should indicate by a 

 live vote their desire to be united with Den- 

 mark, should be ceded to Denmark, has been 

 abolished. As the Emperor stated in his 

 speech, his Government had failed in repeated 

 attempts to settle the question with Denmark, 

 and meanwhile the people affected by the 

 promise were kept in uncertainty. 



On July 14th, the day after the close of the 

 Reichstag, the u Official Gazette " of the Gov- 

 ernment published a decree by the Emperor, 

 dated the 27th of May, ordaining, in accord- 

 ance with the previous recommendation of 

 Prince Bismarck, a department for the man- 

 agement and control of imperial railways. 

 Herr Maybach, Prussian Minister of Public 

 Works, was appointed chief of the new depart- 

 ment. A decree published on the 16th em- 

 powered Prince Bismarck to create an Impe- 

 rial Treasury Department immediately, under 

 the authority of the Prince, in lieu of the finan- 

 cial department hitherto attached to the office 

 of the Imperial Chancellor. Another imperial 

 decree, addressed to the Chief of the Admiralty, 

 ordained the formation of an Engineer Torpedo 

 Corps, to be especially intrusted with the study 

 and handling of the latest instruments of de- 

 struction in naval warfare. 



In July the court-martial appointed to in- 

 quire into the cause of the disaster which in 

 1878 befell the ironclad Grosser Kurfurst sen- 

 tenced Rear-Admiral Batsch to imprisonment 

 in a fortress for six months, Captain Klauser to 

 a similar imprisonment for one month, while 

 Captain Kuhne was acquitted. It is a note- 

 worthy fact in connection with this trial that 

 the tribunal which passed this sentence was 

 for the most part composed of military men, 

 and that the chief of the Imperial Admiralty 

 at this time, Herr von Stosch, was also a sol- 

 dier. 



Ik-rr Windthorst, the leader of the Catholic 

 party, and formerly Minister in the kingdom 

 of Hanover, successfully negotiated the pen- 

 sion or annuity claimed by him for Queen Mary 

 of Hanover. The Queen, through the Duke 

 of Altenburg, thanked the Prussian Govern- 

 ment for the readiness with which it had re- 

 sponded to her wishes. 



On May 18th the German Imperial Consul 

 for Egypt, Baron von Saurma, delivered to the 

 Khedive in the name of his Government the 

 following protest : u The Imperial Government, 

 regarding the decree of the 22d of April, by 

 which the Egyptian Government on its part 



only seeks to arrange its debt relations in a 

 way involving the suspension of existing rec- 

 ognized right-, a.s un open and direct infringe- 

 ment of the international obligations assumed 

 by it along with judicial reforms, must deny to 

 the said decree all legally binding operation 

 with reference to the competence of the mixed 

 tribunals and the rights of the Imperial German 

 subjects, and holds the Viceroy responsible for 

 all the consequences of his illegal conduct." 



On June llth the Emperor and Empress 

 celebrated their golden wedding, which was 

 attended by representatives of all the Euro- 

 pean Courts. Public rejoicings were general 

 throughout the empire, and large sums of 

 money were collected for the endowment of 

 charitable institutions in commemoration of 

 the festival. A few weeks before, on May 13th, 

 the Emperor had become a great-grandfather 

 by the birth of the first child of the heir ap- 

 parent to the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, who 

 last year was married to the oldest daughter 

 of the Crown Prince of Prussia. 



On May 17th a Stadtetag (convention of 

 cities) was held at Berlin, which was attended 

 by the representatives of seventy -two cities 

 and municipalities. The object of the meeting 

 was to register their protest once more against 

 the proposed new duties on cattle and corn, 

 and to point out the wrongs and disadvantages' 

 which the laboring and industrial populations 

 of large towns would thereby suffer. A reso- 

 lution was passed setting forth that a tax on 

 beef and bread would prevent workingmen 

 from enjoying the necessary means of suste- 

 nance, would thereby lessen the power of labor, 

 and thus impede the commercial activity of 

 German towns. Only four of the seventy-two 

 municipalities represented voted against the 

 resolution. 



The Supreme Court of Germany was opened 

 at Leipsic on October 1st, in accordance with 

 the laws finally passed on December 21, 1876. 

 Dr. Friedberg, Secretary of State, in his in- 

 augural speech, referred to the successful ac- 

 tivity at Leipsic of the Supreme Imperial Court 

 of Commerce, which was now absorbed and 

 superseded by the new institutions, and lauded 

 the legal unity now introduced into all Ger- 

 many of which it was the crown and symbol. 

 After the various members had been sworn in, 

 Dr. Sinison, the President of the Court and 

 ex-President of the Reichstag, proposed three 

 cheers for the German Emperor, which were 

 given with great enthusiasm. The judiciary 

 reforms which came into operation all over 

 the empire on this day primarily affect the or- 

 ganization of the various courts and the forms 

 of procedure. All previous upper courts are 

 declared dissolved on the 80th of September, 

 and in their place comes the Supreme Imperial 

 Court, with its s.-at in Leipsic. Tribunals of 

 first instance are formed by the Landesgerichte, 

 or provincial courts, with their various depen- 

 dent branches, while appeals will first go to 

 the Oberlandesgerichte, or upper district court?, 



